Greetings all. Can you assist. I have at present 2 boards I use for the surf, Evo 74 and JP FSW 98. Sails 4.2 to 6.5. I am in Cape Town and 9/10 times end up using the Evo 74 with 4.7. However I an moving to Eaast Coast, where will mainly be on the 5.5. Waves can be vary from summer mush to big clean and FAST winter swells. The trouble is that the wind on the inside is often weak and patchy, especially in the impact zone. My 74 is ace when powered up. However I am only intemediatte in the waves at best, and battle to schlog out.

Should I up to an Evo 83 /80 or a bigger acid say 86/88.

I am 85 kgs. Will only be for waves, not bump and jump.5.5 Ezzy. JP FWS is too stiff, and only use this on flat days with 6.5 /5.5.

Thanks in advance

Ola_H

18th January 2007 01:03 AM

RE: Wave Board Dilema - Ola

Thats indeed a dilemma. No doubt, both Acids and EVOs are extremely good wave boards that can handle pretty much any conditions you throw at them, but they do it differently. If you particularly like the feel of your EVO, an Acid will give you a very differnt feel. Its impossible to say how you will react to the change.

In general, when partnering EVOs to very fast conditions it gets problematic to use them too big. You can say that you need to sacrifice some volume for EVOs to handle fast conditions in a natural way (and by fast I mean fast waves rather than windy). With Acids you get get away with a floatier board I would say. In more specific words, I think you will be able to handle a speedy wave ride on an Acid 80 as well as on your EVO 74 and the extra liters will surely be a plus in sketchy wind in the impact zone.

But on the other hand, an EVO 80 is clearly better than previous version in good, faster waves and since you seem to liek the EVO feel, I think you will prefer that board for most waves you encounter. It handles wind too, but as indicated above, it might get a handful in really big FAST waves, particularly if combined with lots of wind.

So in the end it will be about what kind of compromise you want to make and what kind of chanses you want to take. Take a chance on the PA80 and you may end up not likeing it in the slow stuff. Take a chance on the E80 and you might find it too big in the FAST conditions you mention.

Personally I tend to use the EVO 70 as an all round board and like it also in fairly fast and light stuff (say Kaua or lanes in just sailable wind). I&#39;m 69 kilos, but I&#39;m also farily confident at schlogging. So, my own preference might not help you much.

An alternative to think about would be to trade the bigger board instead. A Kombat of similar size will probably feel better on a wave (Kombats probably being the most wave oriented fw boards on the market and their rockers are similar to the Pure Acid boards). But maybe that will not help you much, because in light conditions with big and fast waves, the K will still be to big.

So again, really, really difficult to give exact advice here. You can strike gold with either E80 or PA80, but you might get dissapoited with any of them too (in certain conditions). Do you have a chance to try a 07 E80 or PA80? That would help A LOT in this case.

zots

22nd January 2007 02:09 PM

RE: Wave Board Dilema - Ola

Thanks as always for the reply. Bad news is all the Evo 80/83 have been sold. Good news is that I have found a demo 05 80 Acid. I will give this a try. Is this not going to similar in the lulls to the Evo 74? And yes, I love the Evo feel.

Not an option to trade the FWS 98 - stunning board with the 6.5!!

Cheers

Ola_H

22nd January 2007 10:35 PM

RE: Wave Board Dilema - Ola

The 05 Acid 80 is a very differnt board though. Not bad, just not so similar to the 06-07 boards.

zots

8th February 2007 07:39 PM

RE: Wave Board Dilema - Ola

Good day Ola. Finally managed to track down an 07 evo 80....but have also been tempted by the JP RWW 83. I have not ridden an evo 80, but have been on the RWW 83, and compared to the Evo 74, it is MUCH better at going upwind, and in the lulls. This was a problem I solved on the Evo 74 by using a huge 24 cm MFC fin, but this killed the looseness of the board.

How does the Evo 80 07 go upwind, and will it be as comfortable as the JP, as I will not get the chance to demo the evo 80. As above sails 4.7 / 5.5 Mainly 5.5. Sounds like the 80 needs to be powered up, whereas te JP can do without much power.

Thanks again

Ola_H

8th February 2007 11:46 PM

RE: Wave Board Dilema - Ola

I have not sailed the latest incarnation of the RWW, so I can only rely on experience from earlier versions complemented from reports from ther people.

To be honest, I don&#39;t think you will find the E80 planing up as easy as the RWW. The RWWs are kind of more freestyle-wave like in its character and one of the benefits is a "well defined" trim which makes it easier to both get going and to stay upwind. The word "easily" is carefully choosen, since it is more a question of hte RWW needing less technique and less work to do these things than a question about "absolute performance". So, if you really value general "easy riding" the JP is hard to beat. This get more emphasised whan sail size aproaches 6.0. At 5.3 and smaller the difference is less apparent and the more powered up you are the better the E80 handles upwind.

On the other hand, the JP gets more limited both in better waves and in higher wind. It will start to bounce and generally just feel big earlier and in waves it will suit cross onshore conditions, backside riding and smaller slower waves better. The EVO is in my opinion a better all round wave boards that has a sweet spot that reaches a lot longer into the good wave and high wind range.

If you value a big range and don&#39;t want to struggle in good waves the E80 is a super sweet board. You can trim it a lot to performa slo in lighter conditions by using abigger fin. Unlike just smacking on a big MFC, I receomend staying with the Drake Natural wave if your in waves. These go up all the way to 26cm. This sounds huge, but compared to all other wave fins I&#39;ve used, the Naturals sail kind of small for their depth and stay smooth fast and loose also when you choose them bigger. A 25 or 26 is a perfect complement to the standard 23 and this will seriously improve upwind ability in light winds on the E80. It will still not feel as "freestyle-wave like" as the JP, but within the EVO scope if will be very efffective.

So, it all comes down to if you want an immaculate wave riding board with a huge range that adapts reasonable well to freewave type sailing (=EVO 80) or a more dedicated easy riding freewave type board (RWW).

zots

9th February 2007 02:04 PM

RE: Wave Board Dilema - Ola

The sweet spot I am looking for is 5.5 Ezzy, good schlogger, and can take a 4.7 Ezy when needed 25 % of the time. I am not the best sailor. But it will be my middle / higher wind board. When too gusty of light, will use FSW 98.

Thanks bro, owe you an ale when you are in SA ( Come and sail our contest in Jan 08)

Ola_H

10th February 2007 04:12 PM

RE: Wave Board Dilema - Ola

Yeah, I would like to go there some time, not only for the ale...

Just a remark, if you would ask Scotty (84 kilos) he would surely say the sweet spot of the 80 is 5.3-5.7 so there is no doubts the board works great with a 5.5. The only question is wether its an EVO you want or if you want to move towards a more freewave type design.

zots

12th February 2007 01:33 PM

RE: Wave Board Dilema - Ola

I am just worried about the on off of the evo. Given my 74 was small for me, but I could not handle the lulls with it. I demo-ed an RWW 83, and as you say, it is easy to sail. Another problem I had with the 74 was that in really choppy surf, it was not pleasant (the RWW is even worse). My How is the new evo in rough chop, and how schloggable on the inside it is. Scotty?

Regards

Ola_H

12th February 2007 01:56 PM

RE: Wave Board Dilema - Ola

EVOs are generally very good at schlogging, its just that compared with freestyle wave like shapes they require more work to get going early.

But regarding control and chop, the E80 is truly great and the 07 generation is a bit better than the older ones. Among the "short and wide" boards, I don&#39;t think anyone beats the EVOs at this.